Greene Co. show to bring New York back to Snow Hill

Photo available for purchase

Joel Ginn practices Wednesday inside the band room at Greene Central High School for his upcoming show. Ginn will perform a Bing Crosby tribute show Saturday to raise money for new uniforms for the school’s marching band.

Janet S. Carter / The Free Press

By Margaret Fisher, Staff Writer

Published: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 at 11:59 PM.

Photo Galleries

SNOW HILL — Anyone old enough to know what a music album is probably remembers Bing Crosby, his smooth crooning voice and his No. 1 best-selling hit, “White Christmas.”

On Saturday, Joel Ginn, a Greene County native and New York City performer, is bringing his show, “Singing Bing,” to Greene Central High School as a tribute to the famous singer and in honor of the late Keith Ginn.

Proceeds from the show, sponsored by the Greene County Music Alumni and Heritage Productions, will support the Keith Ginn Memorial Band Uniforms Fund.

“I have heard him perform and he’s awesome,” said singer Loretta Barrow, president and founder of the Greene County Music Alumni Association.

When Hurricane Sandy caused devastation to the East Coast in late October, the school cancelled its historic annual band competition.

Ginn said he decided to have a show that could provide needed funds to purchase new band uniforms.

“I had always talked about and thought about bringing my shows down there,” the Greene Central alumnus said about his hometown.

SNOW HILL — Anyone old enough to know what a music album is probably remembers Bing Crosby, his smooth crooning voice and his No. 1 best-selling hit, “White Christmas.”

On Saturday, Joel Ginn, a Greene County native and New York City performer, is bringing his show, “Singing Bing,” to Greene Central High School as a tribute to the famous singer and in honor of the late Keith Ginn.

Proceeds from the show, sponsored by the Greene County Music Alumni and Heritage Productions, will support the Keith Ginn Memorial Band Uniforms Fund.

“I have heard him perform and he’s awesome,” said singer Loretta Barrow, president and founder of the Greene County Music Alumni Association.

When Hurricane Sandy caused devastation to the East Coast in late October, the school cancelled its historic annual band competition.

Ginn said he decided to have a show that could provide needed funds to purchase new band uniforms.

“I had always talked about and thought about bringing my shows down there,” the Greene Central alumnus said about his hometown.

It will also honor his brother who died of cancer in October at the age of 51. The Ginn brothers — Keith, Alan and Joel — grew up performing with their father Kenneth Ginn, the high school’s first band director from 1961 to 1988.

Kenneth Ginn, who resides in Kinston, recalled his three toddlers on the stage at the former Maury auditorium in a “cameo performance.”

“I did rehearsals,” Joel Ginn said, “and I remember playing around.”

He looked up to the many Greene County actors, such as Fitz McKeel, a Walstonburg commissioner who Joel said “is one of the best actors I’ve ever seen.”

Ginn graduated from Greene Central in 1985. He earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts in 1990 and an MBA degree in project management through DeVry University.

In the mid-1990s, he toured throughout the U.S. in a children’s show, “Wind in the Willows,” and performed “On the Town” through Germany and other European countries.

In 2010, Ginn produced his first show, “Tin Pan Alley,” in New York. In the course of doing research while writing that show, his next show emerged.

“Very frequently, the name Bing Crosby would come up,” he said. “I knew the next show would be on him.”

Ginn said he relishes the days when people not only listened to the radio, but actually looked at the radio while enjoying the music of the early- to mid-20th century. And Bing was at the top of the charts.

“I like the music and I like the words, together,” he said. “I just thought it was such a special time when before TV when everything was on the radio. … And the songs really do tell a beautiful story, each song.”

Songs like “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” “Swinging on a Star” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” are some of Bing’s many famous hits. And, of course, “White Christmas,” which is still a No. 1 song.

These are songs that might be lost if it weren’t for three generations of singers keeping the music alive, Ginn said.

Bing had a voice that exhaled with ease across the airwaves, touching each listener in a special way, he said.

“(It was) his acting and his singing — more his singing,” Ginn said that moved him to do a tribute to Bing, “just growing up and listening to his voice and how magical it was, really.”

“Singing Bing” was held January 2012 at The Metropolitan Room in New York City and in October at the Albany Jewish Community Center.

In a review on Ginn’s performance at bistroawards.com, Elizabeth Ahifors described Bing’s singing as “conversational phrasing (that) moved popular songs out of the operetta world, erased pretentiousness, and made the tunes familiar and accessible for recordings, radio, television and films.”

She went on to say that Ginn “displays a studious appreciation for the Crosby legacy and the songs made famous by a man who was not perfect or lovable, but who possessed a talent that remains legendary.”

Joel Benjamin said in a review on cabaretscenes.org, “Ginn chose to focus on a ‘greatest hits’ format, avoiding Crosby’s influential early jazz work.”

But Ginn has since revised his earlier shows and he will be singing more of Bing’s jazz hits.

The New York show included a pianist and bass player. This show will feature a 13-piece band made up of musicians from around the state — about half of whom are Greene County Music Alumni members and the other half are with The Carolina Jazz and Blues Collaborative, Ginn said.

The 7 p.m. Greene County show, directed by Kenneth Ginn with sound by Alan Ginn, will be nearly an hour longer than the original show was.

“It’s a fun show,” Ginn said, “and the songs are fun to sing. It’s like telling a story you’re excited to tell — in song.”

There will be a special guest, David Pate, a Greene Central alumnus.

Limited seats are available for $50. General seating is $25. Tickets can be purchased by calling Loretta Barrow at 252-717-8900.